Server: background dependency install fails every session with @opencode-ai/plugin@local not found #30908

Description

Every time OpenCode Desktop starts, the server immediately begins an infinite retry loop trying to install @opencode-ai/plugin@local in the user's global config directory (~/.config/opencode/). The install always fails because local is not a valid npm version specifier for this package. The loop produces dozens of warnings per session and never recovers.

Environment

• OpenCode Desktop: tested on 1.15.13 and 1.16.0
• OS: Windows 11 x64
• Config dir: C:\Users\<user>\.config\opencode

Log evidence

Every session log contains repeated bursts of this warning:

WARN  service=config dir=C:\Users\<user>\.config\opencode
      error=Cause([Fail(NpmInstallFailedError
        (cause: @opencode-ai/plugin: No matching version found for @opencode-ai/plugin@local.))
      ])
      background dependency install failed

Observed retry cadence (from a single session):

• +4 s, +2 s, +0.5 s, +0.8 s, +1.2 s, +2.5 s, +1.9 s … then every ~30–120 s indefinitely

The user's own ~/.config/opencode/package.json has the correct version pinned:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@opencode-ai/plugin": "1.16.0"
  }
}

And node_modules/@opencode-ai/plugin is correctly installed at 1.16.0. The @local specifier is not coming from the user config — it is generated internally by the OpenCode server during the background install step.

Root cause hypothesis

The OpenCode server-side config service tries to install a locally-bundled copy of @opencode-ai/plugin (i.e. the version shipped inside the app binary) into the user's config node_modules. It does this by invoking npm with the version tag local, but:

1. The npm registry has no dist-tag named local for @opencode-ai/plugin.
2. There is no file: path resolution fallback.

The expected behaviour would be either:

• Use "@opencode-ai/plugin": "file:<path-to-bundled-package>" to point npm at the copy bundled in the app, or
• Use the semver version matching the running app (e.g. 1.16.0) and let npm fetch it from the registry.

Impact

• Noisy log pollution in every session.
• Continuous background npm-install retries waste CPU/IO.
• Present since at least v1.15.13; still present in v1.16.0.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install OpenCode Desktop (any recent version).
2. Open the app and start any session.
3. Inspect ~/.local/share/opencode/log (Linux) or %APPDATA%\ai.opencode.desktop\opencode\log (Windows).
4. Observe repeated background dependency install failed warnings with @opencode-ai/plugin@local.

OpenCode version

1.15.13 / 1.16.0

Operating System

Windows 11 x64

Terminal

N/A (Desktop app)